1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety guard for shrouding the garage door hardware mounting a one-piece garage door to protect against escape of pieces or segments of a loaded garage door spring in the event of rupture.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has long been the practice in certain parts of the country to mount one-piece garage doors from the garage door jambs by means of linkage mechanisms intended to carry the door from its vertical closed position to a horizontal overhead position. To assist in lifting the door, which may weigh on the order of 100 to 200 lbs., the hardware is typically counter-balanced by a strong spring which, when the door is closed, is typically under high tension to thus store energy available to assist in the opening of the door. The springs themselves are subject to limited life and after several years of use will progressively fatigue creating a danger that the spring will rupture while under tension often resulting in the free end of the ruptured spring flailing about in an uncontrolled manner or even becoming detached and disassociated from the hardware itself to be propelled through a trejectory dictated by the particular configuration at the time of breakage. Such uncontrolled release of energy and flying projectiles can cause great injury to the person or individuals in the general proximity at the time of rupture and can do substantial damage to the paint or even body of an automobile housed in the garage.
Many efforts have been made over the years to provide satisfactory safety mechanisms for holding the loose spring parts captive in the event of ruptures. One such device incorporates a pair of telescopical tubular members which may be telescoped over the periphery of such garage door springs or, if desired, telescoped within the confines of the spring. A device of this type is showing U.S. Pat. No. 3,402,922 to H. F. McCan. Such devices, while satisfactory for their intended use, suffer the shortcoming that the parts thereof must telescope relative to each other each time the door is opened and closed thus, necessitating periodic lubrication of the moving parts and creating a problem with free telescopical travel thereof in the event of misalignment or denting of the walls of the tubes. Additionally, such mechanisms are expensive to manufacture and are time-consuming and awkward to install thus discouraging use thereof.
Other efforts have led to the proposal that tether ropes or wire cables be threaded through the interior of such springs to be anchored at the opposite ends to the hardware or door in effort to limit travel and escape of the free ends of ruptured springs or disassociated parts thereof. Such devices suffer the shortcoming that the task of installing the tether rope or wire is time-consuming and the tether, when the spring moves from its extended condition to its retracted condition, experiences slack in the length thereof thus freeing it for possible catching between the coils of the spring or even extending from the end of the spring creating a free loop. Such slack loops have been known to function as a lasso in trapping the limbs of children or pets when the garage door is subsequently closed, the spring stretched, and the tether tightened and the loop or lasso closed. The relatively high forces involved can cause severe injury.
Other efforts have led to the construction of the springs having hairpin shaped retaining wires inserted therein in telescopical interlocking relationship and secured at their opposite ends to anchor fittings at the opposite ends of the spring. Such a device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,235 to William Halopoff, applicant being the owner of that patent by assignment. Such a retained spring, while affording significant safety protection and being relatively economical to manufacture, still leaves the garage door hardware itself exposed and subjects passersby to the danger of injury from a released spring or spring fragment in the event the anchor chain or bolts at one or the other end of the spring gives loose.
Thus, there exists a need for a guard which will shroud the entire linkage making up the garage door hardware to afford total safety while covering the hardware itself from view.
With these and other objectives in view, the invention consists of the construction, arrangement, and combination of the various parts of the device, whereby the objectives contemplated are attained, as hereinafter pointed out in the appended claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.